Goodbye
by TartanPhoenix
Summary: Sometimes loving someone means saying goodbye
1. Chapter 1

1Disclaimer: I don't own them. No, really I'm serious. They belong to J.K.Rowling. Very nice woman.

Rating: Alright for anyone old enough to be on this board

AN: As everyone has already figured out, I have WAY too much time on my hands. My job only lasts for six months at a time before I have to take a week vacation. Well the almighty people in the postal system have decided that I am no longer needed. So, you are now looking at the new, improved, and officially unemployed me. So, more time for writing. Yay! Hope everyone likes it.

Sometimes loving means letting go.

Goodbye

He stood in the back of the ballroom, swallowed by the shadows and simply watched. People moved across the polished marble floor in well practiced movements, graceful as swans and no less deliberate in movement. While he had not truly been invited, he was a man that no one would dare refuse entry anywhere. He had only just arrived, but Albus Dumbledore immediately excused himself from his host before he could be seen by others. He was no there to mingle. He knew before he had ever seen her that she was in the room. There was simply something about her that always called directly to his soul in whispers and half spoken promises. His eyes scanned the dozens of couples floating before him, and in a flash he saw her. She was as beautiful as he remembered, and just as graceful. She moved with her partner across the floor in seamless motion.

It had been three years, three torturous years since he had seen her. It was his own fault, and he knew it. He had allowed his work to consume him, and she had suffered for it. Looking back at the last few months before she walked away he could kick himself for missing the signs. Her eyes no longer sparked when he entered the room, and her smile had all but disappeared. But, even worse, they no longer talked. She had always been his greatest challenger, making him argue every point, every decision. And, with this, came her soft voice as they read poetry before the roaring fire long into the night. Even in his sleep he could still hear her lilting voice caressing the words of Keats or Shakespeare.

At the time he had written it off simply as stress; the students had been giving her trouble for weeks before. It never occurred to him that he was the problem; surely, she would have told him if she was unhappy. That was, not until he came home and found her letter on their bed and her clothes missing. It was short and to the point just like her.

I'm sorry Albus, but I just cannot be second anymore. Please don't look for me, but know I will always love you.

Despite her request he had looked. Keeping the note in the top drawer of his desk, he searched everywhere he could think of, but she had simply disappeared off the face of the earth for those first two years. At the beginning of the third he slowly began to hear reports of her. She was teaching again, this time in a smaller university in Ireland. She had begun work on a new series of articles about the animagi transformation. She was happy.

Albus watched as man after man swept her up into their arms for a dance. Her long black hair flowed freely down her back against her deep blue gown, and he could remember the feeling of it running between his fingers; he could still remember the taste of vanilla the lingered just behind her ear. Albus wondered if any of these men had found the one spot behind her right knee that could make her moan or if they had found out that she was ticklish. She turned toward him and there was one sight that lifted his heart, even if only so slightly. His Minerva was smiling.

Without another word said to anyone, Albus turned on his heels and headed back to the castle. "Goodbye my love," was caught by the wind, and he never noticed as her ears perked up and her head turned toward the doorway.


	2. Starting over

The wind was harsh and unforgiving as he stepped into the night, just as he deserved. He let his maroon traveling cloak billow out around himself, not bothering to hide from nature's assault. Stopping a few meters from the house, Albus simply closed his eyes. He could hear the rustling of leaves as they swirled around him and the sound of the wind beating against the tree limbs above him. The air was frigid, the sky was clear, and smelled of the first snow fall. Albus smiled softly as he remembered the look on her face as she danced; he wanted to burn the image into his mind forever. "She's happy," he said to himself, "that's all that really matters, right?"

Albus was about to step forward, out of the anti-apparation barrier, when the familiar tingling sensation settled itself in his spine, making his heart pound. Straining, he could just make out the faint crunch of leaves underneath her feet. With the next gust of wind came the subtle smell of vanilla that always seemed to follow her. It was with a feeling of rising dread that Albus realized she had seen him. All of his planning and precautions had been for naught, and now he would be lucky if he could escape the encounter intact. He knew some things had changed, but he doubted greatly if her temper was one of them. 'I hope not,' slipped through his consciousness despite his fear. It was one of the things he loved most about her, her passion, her fire.

Clenching his fists, preparing for battle, Albus slowly turned around when the crunching had stopped. She was standing there, as he knew she would be, eyes blazing and looking absolutely gorgeous. The wind whipped her gown around her slim frame and carried her hair as it swirled in the air. In that instant, she looked every bit the goddess she was. He was also well aware that if looks could kill, there wouldn't be a piece left big enough to identify. "Hello Minerva," he said quietly, not daring to move.

"Albus," she acknowledged evenly. He could see was trying to reign in her temper, and it gave him a tiny shred of relief.

"You look beautiful tonight." It wasn't until the words had left his mouth, and he had seen the flare in her eyes, that he realized just how large a mistake it was. She closed the distance between them in three steps, and lights flashed before his eyes only to be brought back by the sting on his cheek. He recovered just in time to see Minerva bring her hand away; it was also red from the contact. There would definitely be a bruise there in the morning.

"What are you doing here Albus?" She was furious, but also a little confused. The sparkle that had been there only ten minutes before was again missing from his eyes, and that hurt more than her strike him ever could. That hollow looked belonged to him alone. "I came to see that you were alright, nothing more, nothing less." His voice was calm, quiet, just as it always had been, and Minerva felt the anger slowly slipping out of her. In its wake was nothing but the old weariness that she had tried so hard to forget.

"Well, I'm fine, thank you. Now," she said raising an eyebrow, "are you really going to tell me why you've been hunting me down, or are we going to keep running in these circles forever?" Albus could feel his jaw drop open ever so slightly before he was able to regain his composure. The smirk on her face said she had seen it as well.

"How did.." "You have your sources Albus, and I've had mine." That was all she said, but he acknowledged the truth. She was resourceful, and if she wanted information, she was more than capable of getting it. He watched as she shivered in the cold night air, and, without thinking, took off his cloak and wrapped it around her shoulders, grazing her arms as he stepped back. He felt that familiar spark as they touched, and he wondered if she felt it as well. She looked at him, her expression unreadable, as she wrapped the cloak tightly around herself in silent thanks and acknowledgment.

"Why Albus," she asked again. He sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose, a nervous habit picked up in childhood.

"I needed to say goodbye, and..I wanted to see you smile." His admission was made quietly, almost as if saying it any louder would make it false. "I could live knowing that you didn't love me, that I wasn't the one to make you happy. But, I needed to see you smile again before I could let you go. I never meant to be seen. I love you too much to cause you more pain." He had turned away from her as he finished, so he missed the look of surprise that crossed her face.

It wasn't until he felt her cool hand on his shoulder, turning him around, that he turned around. He kept his eyes on the ground, afraid of what he would find. "You are still a foolish old coot Albus. Did you know that? It was never a matter of love, even now. But, I just couldn't do it anymore Albus. I couldn't sit by and be ignored, forgotten. You say you love me, but sometimes love isn't enough Albus. My smile was for you alone, but you stopped giving me reasons to smile. I spent more nights than either of us would care to admit crying and alone. I couldn't wait for you any longer, so I left."

She watched as his eyes snapped up to meet hers, slightly glazed from unshed tears. "Even now," he whispered, daring to reach out and touch her shoulder.

"Even now," she echoed. "If I thought for a moment that things would be different, that we could start again.." She trailed off, looking into his eyes. She didn't understand the determined glint she saw there, or the slight mischievous grin that flitted across his face. He took another step forward, invading her space, letting his other hand come to rest on her hip.

"Albus," she said slightly breathless, "what are you doing?" He let his hand slide farther around her waist, pulling her in closer.

"Starting over," was all he said before bringing his lips down to hers. Her lips were as soft as he remembered as he moved against them. At first she was too shocked to respond, but as his tongue slid across her bottom lip, the old fire ignited within her and she responded, opening to his assault.

The kiss grew in passion, tongues dueling for supremacy, each person trying to get closer to the other. Minerva could feel the flush that crept up her cheeks, and despite the cole air surrounding them, she was burning. It was only the need for oxygen that drove them apart. Their foreheads rested together as Minerva idly played with the strands of his beard.

"What are we doing Albus?" she asked, still slightly breathless. Taking a step back, Albus' eyes twinkled down at her as he extending his hand. "Starting over of course. Good evening, my name is Albus Dumbledore."

Automatically, Minerva reached out and grasped his hand, watching as he brought it up for a kiss. "Minerva McGonagall," she replied. "Tell me Albus, has it become your custom to kiss a woman senseless before you introduce yourself. I'm not sure that would go over so well with some of their husbands."

She was trying to hold back her smile, only letting a twitch form at the corner of her mouth. Albus just laughed outright before drawing her in for another kiss. "No my dear, only you. Always you."


End file.
